The issue of repeated blood collection methods needs to be addressed since the majority of studies on rats require them. It’s important to take into account that a sampling method can be very efficient in a certain context, but become unsuitable for another study. This protocol aims to offer simple and reliable blood sampling alternatives to researchers.
Both methods can be done by a single operator and require no extensive prior training, which allows for standardized procedure. When an animal is under anesthesia, the effect of isoflurane can lead to vessel spasm and make the tail vein puncture unsuitable for blood collection. Our protocol offers an alternative in this situation, the penile vein puncture, which presents a better success rate and yields significantly more amounts of blood in less time.
Summary
Automatically generated
Here, we present a protocol to offer rapid, easy, and reliable blood collection alternatives for the rat model. We describe three different blood sampling methods according to the context: tail vein puncture under anesthesia or on a conscious animal, and dorsal penile vein puncture under anesthesia.
Charlès, L., Agius, T., Filz von Reiterdank, I., Hagedorn, J., Berkane, Y., Lancia, H. H., Uygun, B. E., Uygun, K., Cetrulo Jr., C. L., Randolph, M. A., Lellouch, A. G. Modified Tail Vein and Penile Vein Puncture for Blood Sampling in the Rat Model. J. Vis. Exp. (196), e65513, doi:10.3791/65513 (2023).